Hoiberg instead of Thibs?

[andrei]

Is Hoiberg some sort of a genius college coach? $25M over 5 years and he never coached NBA... funny how he never made more than min in his NBA career and now $5M per season as a coach

[NanashiWake]

Lol, that last part is indeed interesting.

However I do feel that he'll be a good choice when all is said and done.

[Myles]

Kerr, Fish, and Donavan have all gotten similar contracts despite having had no prior coaching experience at the NBA level.

I think the biggest thing for Hoiberg is that he's shown a great ability to coach an offense, you could see it at Iowa St. Hopefully he gets some defensive minded assistants. A lot of people consider him an Xs and Os mastermind.

On a related note, I'm not sure Thibs will ever be a championship head coach without relinquishing some control to assistant coaches. His offenses in the playoffs and his insistence on playing his favorites (Keith Bogans in 2011, Gasol/Noah together this year) will always hold him back IMO.

[KW]

Is Hoiberg some sort of a genius college coach? $25M over 5 years and he never coached NBA... funny how he never made more than min in his NBA career and now $5M per season as a coach

haha, he made just $10.4M in his entire 11-year career. They must really like him to give him a 5-year deal. I don't understand why teams do that when so many coaches last 1-2 years before getting fired.

[Marcos_Beck]

Kerr, Fish, and Donavan have all gotten similar contracts despite having had no prior coaching experience at the NBA level.

I think the biggest thing for Hoiberg is that he's shown a great ability to coach an offense, you could see it at Iowa St. Hopefully he gets some defensive minded assistants. A lot of people consider him an Xs and Os mastermind.

On a related note, I'm not sure Thibs will ever be a championship head coach without relinquishing some control to assistant coaches. His offenses in the playoffs and his insistence on playing his favorites (Keith Bogans in 2011, Gasol/Noah together this year) will always hold him back IMO.

I hope you're right.
I really appreciated Thibs coaching the Bulls as he made them a great team even without their main star. But yeah, he's a great regular season coach and a terrible playoff one. He doesn't know how to adjust and that's key. He peaked as the Bulls coach this year as he couldn't make past LBJ even with a much better (and healthier) roster.

I'm fine with Holberg as long as he does 3 things:
1. play a more free flow style of offense.
2. Start Niko instead of Pau, as Bulls front court best pairings are clearly Niko / Jo and Taj / Pau
3. Dont overplay starters during regular season. I mean, why should Jimmy Buckets play 38 minutes a game? Rest him, play him 34, and he'll give you 100% effort in the games in which he needs to play 38 for the Bulls to win, and during the playoffs too.

Bulls need to find a SG/SF to pair with Jimmy. Then they are well set for this season.

Rose / Butler / SF (Mid-Level exception) / Niko / Noah
PG (minimum or draft) / Snell / McDermott / Taj / Gasol

1st team has Niko to stretch the floor, Rose and Butler as main creators, Noah to anchor the D.
2nd team has shooters around a great frontcourt who can also spread the floor in Taj and Gasol, as both are good jump shooters. Or Taj and Pau can play high/low like they did so much during the playoffs.

[Myles]

I think they should still start Pau, as we saw what happened last time a coach tried to bench Pau. I don't think Hoiberg has the pedigree to make benching Pau his first move as a head coach. Or any move as a head coach, unfortunately. Who knows though, Kerr pulled off benching Iggy, perhaps Hoiberg can do it, but Pau does not have a good history of being benched.

I think they should still look to break up the Pau/Noah tandem though, for sure. Perhaps start the game with that and then never go back to it. Perhaps start ending games with Taj/Pau or Niko/Pau.

I honestly don't think Thibodeau should be a head coach in the league again until he can learn to relinquish some of the control and listen to his assistants. If he remains stubborn the rest of his career, he's best off as a top assistant and architect of the defense (like he was back in Boston). If he opens up and lets his assistants do more in terms of creating and leading the offense, then he could be a head coach again. But he clearly lost his players and that's a huge indication that he may not be suited as a head coach.

[KW]

I don't think Pau would be a good sub. Usually your subs provide energy and things like that and his facilitating in the post is kind of necessary if you want to take pressure off Rose. If was the HC of Chicago, I'd start Gasol and Gibson and bring Noah and Mirotic off the bench but I think at some point, one of those four needs to be traded for guard help. Rose simply isn't reliable- they can't keep relying on Aaron Brooks and Kirk Hinrich to play the games that Rose misses, and Jimmy Butler needs some pressure taken off him as well. Hopefully Hoiberg gives McBuckets minutes this year because he could be huge for them.

[Rob]

I remember wanting hoidberg before we got Kerr. I think Noah will be coming off the bench as a hustle player now with Gibson starting. Mirotic looked like a beast when Gasol went down so maybe more mins for him. And i hope he plays McBuckets to see if hes capable NBA player or another Morrison.

[Dylan]

Personally, I would try to get rid of Noah entirely. I think they should try to trade him now while he still has value left, even after the pretty awful season he had.

I just really do not see the Bulls as a threat unless Rose comes back and returns to MVP form for an entire season. I just don't see it. Butler is fantastic, but beyond him and Nikola Mirotic (great rookie season) I don't like the roster much. Pau is a huge liability defensively, Joakim Noah was bad all season long and nearly unplayable during the playoffs.

Who knows, maybe Hoiberg will be good for them. Love Thibs as an in-game coach - I think he's a phenomenal defensive mind. However the way he handled his players was obviously pretty terrible. Maybe Hoiberg will be an overall upgrade, if he's a little worse of an in-game coach.

[Marcos_Beck]

Bulls drafting Portis means one of their 5 bigs are gone.
They are not parting ways with Portis (recently drafted) and Niko, as both are young, cheap options and have the ability to stretch the floor, they are "modern" big men if this denomination makes any sense, because modern game has Small forwards as small-ball PFs, not PFs who can stretch the floor (Harrison Barnes, LBJ, Durant are all examples of threes who are mainly playing and finishing games at the four).

So it leads us to Noah, Taj and Gasol.
All of them are 30-years or older.
Noah has an expiring 13.5M deal. Taj has a 2 year 17M deal and Pau has something close with 2/15.5M
Taj has recently done ankle surgery. Jo had surgery last year.
Pau had his best season since his last championship last year but his defensive flaws were exposed last year. He can't be the "only" big on the court for a team because he sucks at box outs and covering screens / shooters / pick and roll.
Hoilberg's offense features ball movement and shooting. Also he plays with so much pace.
Gibson is a ball stopper, when he touches the ball, it won't go back to the perimeter, but he has decent mid-range and can run.
Noah is the best passer out of the high post in NBA but he can't burry jumpers, and if his legs are not ok he can't run.
Pau has great shooting and playmaking but he cannot run for the whole game. He becomes a non factor in the game if his team does not play half-court offense and set plays every time.

So, with all that said, what would you do? And what do you think the Bulls will do?
1. trade Noah while his value is all time low
2. Trade Taj even when they know his value is non-existent now with his surgery
3. Trade Pau while his numbers look great and he has good value in the market (even if he was a FA signing one year ago)
4. None of the above (keep all bigs).

I would trade Pau while he has value, get salary relief, wing help, and hope Jo and Taj get better and play at high level again, leading the team's interior D at first and second unit.